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At Hensons Creature Shop this character had many animatronics operators and many people inside the costume.
Puppeteers who were 'flavour of the month' would get some time on him.
But then if they were busy on a movie, good old HONEYMONSTER would get passed on to someone else.
I actually managed to hold on to being the 'go-to-guy' for eight or nine years.
The SUGAR PUFFS
HONEYMONSTER
Kevin Bradshaw was inside the Body-Suit for the first couple of adverts I did .
Kevin had been inside The Bark Troll on the NES3 movie with me, so we had been paired up before.
When Kevin was unavailable, a new guy Hensons had just auditioned was put inside HM.
He wasn't new to me though.
Yes it was my old Polka pal-
ROMAN STEPHANSKI
Roman and I were a good solid pairing, we got on well, so the work was easy.
We were a fun team too. I'm sure that's why they kept us together for so many years. Also the Lovely Tracy Lennon at Hensons liked to book us, as she knew we would get the job done. Cheers Tracy.
It was also the start of the period where the Client was keen to dress up the Honeymonster in different outfits and genres: Judge Dread, James Bond, with Boyzone, and several football themed campaigns with Kevin Keegan.
It was a thrill to film on the pitch at the old -original- Wembley stadium .
The atmosphere of excitement and history in that place was palpable.
To get to stand on the hallowed pitch, the royal box, walk the tunnel.
Even the Home Dressing Room.
I was surprised what a fan-boy I was on those days, especially considering I don't even like football.
For the first few years, Honeymonster was still hooked up to the Henson Waldo Mk2 control system.
Fortunately they moved with the times and eventually started using Matt Dentons Micromagic hand control system.
This is what it looks like when the whole HoneyMonster circus comes to town.
Whether just up the road from the Henson Creature shop, or halfway round the globe. We transported many flight cases of his heads and bodies.
So basically loads of stuff.
In this next photo, pay extra attention to the big blue box in the bottom left of frame.
That's the Hensons propriety computer system that make the hand controls interface with whatever animatronic creature it's paired with.
It's an impressive bit of kit. Amazing what it lets a puppeteer achieve in real-time.
It is also big and heavy : and impresses the hell out of agency and clients.
Follow the Logo trail to the Blue Box .... Well for nearly two decades these computers have gone round the World on location shoots.
Some places were arduous to get all the gear up - muddy farm tracks, frozen ice floes, deserts and mountains.
Often requiring two strong lads to carry the darn things.
What did we discover when Hensons closed the Creature Shop and moved back to the USA ? One of these Blue Boxes was in a skip, and got opened.
Inside just a couple of motherboards, a noisy fan and several big heavy concrete blocks !! Yup ...it had all been total B.S.
A light briefcase sized unit could have done the job.
Not every shoot was a 'themed' dressing up extravaganza.
Honeymonster still did plenty of 'Kitchen and breakfast bowl' type gigs.
Working with Boyzone for a few days was fun.
They were nice genuine guys.
And then there were the big cinematic campaigns like the James Bond spoof.
Location shoots in South Africa for that one : sweet !
THE LAST VIDEO
Commissioned by ABBA themselves and filmed in secret as a surprise aired on the Eurovision Semi Final night.
Made to celebrate 30 years since their iconic win in Brighton with 'Waterloo'
The puppets were really lovely.
Built at Hensons London Creature Shop they were hyper cute, and instantly recognisable.
Mark Jefferis performed the two brunettes while I got the blondes.
The lovely Phillip Eason and John Wheatley were on eye controls and addition arms.
It's good to know the puppets still exist, and people can get a close up look at them.
Many puppets I've used have been sold at auction, or ended up in a skip.
Some have actually been stolen out of skips and then sold on.
But the mini popsters are safely on display in ABBAs own Museum in Stockholm.
Apologies to ABBA and their management team for not sending a gushing and huge Thank You for the marvellous print of the four puppets signed by every member of ABBA....We never got them.
Instead of the usual tight green or blue lycra, puppeteers worked in loose black pyjamas.
Nice and comfortable to work in.
Visual effects still managed to 'key' us out and composite clean shots of the puppets.
A wonderful Top Secret shoot in Stockholm.
Apologies to ABBA and their management team for not sending a gushing and huge Thank You for the marvellous print of ther four puppets signed by every member of ABBA ... We never got them.
Apologies to ABBA and their management team for not sending a gushing and huge Thank You for the marvellous print of ther four puppets signed by every member of ABBA ... We never got them.
Only by chance and almost a decade later, Phil worked with the Director Calle again.
Calle asked if we enjoyed the gift that ABBA had sent over for the four puppeteers .
Turns out of course, the Managers at Hensons kept them for themselves.
Which tells you a lot. If Jim were still alive, we would have received our gifts.
ABBA must think us very rude for not acknowledging such a wonderful gesture.
So thank you anyway ABBA : It was a very kind thought.
E.T.
BRITISH TELECOM
A nice collaboration between the Neal Scanlon and Stan Winston Studios.
Three USA Puppeteers came over, bringing ET with them on the plane, and joined the four of us that worked on Babe 2 with Neal.
ET is still such a charismatic and strong on-screen presence.
Up close and personal the little chap is no less impressive in real life.
He is an exquisite piece of puppet building.
Not the original from the Spielberg movie. The latex skin rotted off that years ago. But a faithful recreation by the Stan Winston Studios who did make the first one.
They bought their own hand control system with them.
Very similar, yet subtly different from any I had used in the past.
It's like being a different car ...the driving is the same, but your surroundings change.
Great to experience another companies way of working.
With such an iconic character, the 'no cameras on set' rule was very strictly enforced. So I have zero photos of our puppeteer gang at work or me at the controls. Yes, I got to be in charge of his mouth and facials ...sweet !
DASH
A 'Bohemian' Rhapsody
Roman, Peter and Adam from Prague based ARMADA + made the whole team so welcome and comfortable.
A top-notch Production Company. Thanks chaps !
The shoot in Prague
- Shakespeares
'Bohemia'
It is currently airing on French TV.
And Its also being shown at the Caan ..I wait finding out if it wins any awards !
Big Thanks to our lovely Director CLOE BAILLY & Producers Vincent and Nathalie
Also Maina our Stylist : all from Iconoclast.
The Puppeteer Gang: Yours truly with Villem & David from Prague.
ARNAU was such a wonderful D.O.P : easy going, skilful and generously accommodating.
When you are talented and confident in what you do, it's second nature to work together generously with your performers.
'Theo-Xmas-Decs' ( you know who you are : and so do most UK puppeteers) - You could learn lessons from this guy.
Arnau would never deliberately put lighting stands where the puppeteers need to be just to make life difficult.
Cheers Arnau
All the UK actors on these ads were wonderful.
Actor and Comedian JAMES BAYNES was particularly good fun to work with on the Rugby gear section.
All great Fun !
All the UK actors on these ads were wonderful.
Actor and Comedian JAMES BAYNES was particularly good fun to work with on the Rugby gear section.
All great Fun !
I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT
BUTTER COWS
This campaign ran for many years. Usually we shot one a year, sometimes two.
The variety of theming was great fun. You never knew what film or TV genre the Bulls and Heffers would be spoofing next.
In the gangster themed ads, the puppets got to fire machine guns.
Blanks of course, and all under the watchful eye off a professional movie armourer.
Great fun though. I really enjoyed that one
We all felt like Al Pacino for a brief moment.
Or like we were in a movie version of 'Reservoir Cows'
Always a fun gig, especially if John Henderson was directing.
And it kept us Spitting Image puppeteers and the workshop and building teams gainfully employed between series.
COWS THREEE. paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
This is still only Placeholder dummy Text ..Hold this space , more is a coming !
THIS WEBSITE IS STILL VERY MUCH UNDER BASIC CONSTRUCTION
'The Gameshow'. Me and Nigel both looking like a right couple of Contestants!
These shoots were always huge fun. Usually just a couple of days in the studio. Nice to catch up with the Spitting Image Gang in between Series.
It was a good gig for the guys and gals that usually did the Spitting Image voices too. Here Kate Robbins was a right sexy cow !
MARINE CONFERENCES
SHELL & B.P. WORLDWIDE
This was a smashing little job, and super fun to do.
Especially as it grew into so much more than it was originally supposed to be.
Initially these puppets were only meant for a Conference in the UK.
This was still a huge affair as it was marking a new period of offshore cooperation between two giants : Shell and B.P
MARINE
The
CONFERENCE
AT THE BIRMINGHAM N.E.C. CONFERENCE SUITE
THIS WAS FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED OIL COMPANY MANAGERS FROM ALL OVER THE UK AND IRELAND
IT'S AIM TO ANNOUNCE THE TWO COMPANIES UPCOMMING ALIANCES IN RESEARCH AT SEA
We were hidden away on a duplicate conference table, set with matching place-cards, table numbers and flowers. Just the same as the rest of the delegates.
We were projected onto the big screen at regular intervals.
Everyone thought it was hilarious, but they were convinced we were being beamed in by satellite from a London studio.
They had no idea that the huge video screen filling one wall of the room, concealed a veritable puppet TV studio behind. They all kept scanning round their own area for where 'table 22' was hiding.
This was
another job that
all hinged on me
improvising and
vocally sparring with my old
'comedy-pal' Francis Wright.
Such a good combo ! It just 'works'.
As the day progressed one of the most senior managers was getting apoplectic to know if we were 'really there'. So he summoned one of the blokes in the know and said : "If they are really here, I want them to hold up my Rolex watch on screen next time"
Which of course we did, to huge laughter, especially when we said we didn't want to keep it as it looked like a fake.
Needless to say for the next link, he had been ushered round the back and was projected up onto the big screen, 'sat' at our table all three of us having drinks.
Great Fun.
Nice when improv helps things along.
The puppets were such a success, and the bloke with the watch turned out to be highly influential in the company.
So it was decided we would go along to all three of the 'worldwide' roll outs of the Marine Initiative.
One in EUROPE : ( Madrid )
AMERICA : ( Houston )
AUSTRALASIA : ( Singapore )
All the very top managers worldwide, would travel to the nearest of these three mega gatherings.
And now BRIAN & CLIVE were going too.
This was another job that hinged on me improvising and vocally sparring with my old 'comedy pal' Francis Wright.
Europe first , and even though it was the least exciting travel wise, it was a huge success again.
Nice to have time to explore after the job, and try some of the best Tapas and wine I've ever had.
BRIAN was a retired Shell Manager - hence being red with a yellow tache.
CLIVE was made in B.Ps green. He was likewise a retired B.P boss.
They were supposed to represent 'The Old Guard', not happy with a new era of cooperation between rival companies. But they were curious to find out what it was all about, so had gatecrashed the conference.
They were comedy value to help make a lot of information and figures more palatable over the course of a very long day.
A longer flight, the conference was again a joy to perform.
Plus the chance to go visit one of the ( many !) Western Stores and come home with a real Cowboy Hat and Alligator Boots.
It had to be done .
We were not sure if our comedy would hit the mark in a very different culture.
But we need not have worried.
Another triumph.
Then we went out for "Singapore Sling' Cocktails in the real Raffles Hotel Bar.
Decadent. Wonderful!
The puppets and costumes were made (as if you hadn't guessed) by yours truly.
They are still on display in a glass cabinet at BP headquarters in Hemmel Hempstead. At least that's what I was told a few years ago. I do hope it's true.
GREMLINS
BRITISH TELECOM CAMPAIGN
Having had such success with ET, British Telecom decided to recruit this little Gang of mischief makers ... No I don't mean ARTEM.
Look out here come the GREMLINS!
I hadn't realised what an old movie geek I really am until we did this shoot.
Just like the other guys on the team, I was like a big kid.
Thrilled to be working with genuine Gremlins.
It was the
real deal !
Thanks to ET being such a huge success
for them, British Telecom decided to recruit
this little Gang of mischief makers ..
No I don't mean ARTEM ..
Look out here come the
GREMLINS
When Gremlins met a Dragon...
Puppeteers
Iestyn Evans , Richard Coombs
Andy Heath & Simon Buckley
And together we
were terrorising
PETER JONES
From TV's
Dragons Den.
The TV adverts were filmed in a studio. But we also got to shoot stills for the campaign at some iconic places.
We did a naughty bit of 'stealth' filming in central London.
Jaimie and the gang at ARTEM did a fabulous job getting so many Gremlin puppets made and painted in such a short amount of time.
Great work under pressure.
Bravo !
FLAT ERIC !
It was nice to play a part in the journey of a mini Cult sensation.
For a short while we all went bonkers for a little bit of yellow fleece and fur.
When Gremlins met a Dragon...
Puppeteers
Iestyn Evans , Richard Coombs
Andy Heath & Simon Buckley
And together we
were terrorising
PETER JONES
From TVs
Dragons Den
For total disclosure : It wasn't me puppeteering the original Levi Adverts that kick started the whole Eric-mania. They were shot in the USA by someone else.
But for all the filming and appearances Eric did in Europe, that was me.
I did get to perform Flat Eric in a moving car, in a UK advert with David Soul.
Flat was built at the Henson Creature Shop in Camden by the lovely Muppet builder Janet Knechtel . On all our film shoots Janet was known as "Flats Mum".
We performed at an in-house Fashion Show at Levis headquarters in Brussels. This was to announce the World-wide roll-out of the Flat Eric soft toy.
The doll was perfect in every detail , just a little bit smaller.
It seemed everyone wanted one ! And soon enough people were cutting a slit in the back of them, removing the stuffing and making their own YouTube videos of Flat doing bonkers (and often quite naughty) things.
My finest hour with Flat was the music video to Mr Oizos 'FlatBeat'.
We shot that in France In a fancy office of the admin block in the Palace of Versailles.
Using the sausage as a cigar was a brilliant bit of improv, if I say so myself !
SUPERGRASS
PUMPING
ON YOUR
STERIO
MUSIC
VIDEO
The insanely talented young director GARTH JENNINGS helped Supergrass come up with the concept for a Henson puppet extravaganza.
For his concept designs Garth took inspiration from one of the bands old logos.
The gangly proportions and flared trousers proved a perfect look for the puppet bodies.
I had worked with Garth on adverts before this Music Video. A few years later he directed the Hitchhikers Guide movie.
He's a good egg.
With twelve puppeteers and four band members, we needed sixteen matching sets of puppeteering blacks (with 'beekeeper' style hoods.) It turns out nowhere in the country had that many. There were half a dozen at some puppet theatres, and a few in Panto Hire places.
But they were all different shades of black, and also made of different fabrics.
Visual effects needed a 'constant' shade of black to pull a digital' key'.
Keying is what made us puppeteers disappear into the background.
Hensons workshops were crazy busy finishing all the puppets and props ....
...so I headed off to Birmingham Rag Market and bought a bolt of black fabric.
Then I got my sewing machine out. Job Done !
Then the finished look once we were digitally 'keyed' and 'crushed'.
Gone ! ... Magic !
Rehearsing with hoods up.
The band really got into the spirit of it all.
We were lucky, as well as Garth we had Hensons go-to movement coordinator PAT GARRET.
She had huge fun choreographing disembodied neon pink feather boas.
I'd first met Pat on Alice In Wonderland. Lovely lady.
Clickable Links will take you to the videos on YouTube.
Don't forget to come back here afterwards to continue your journey through the Richard Coombs Coffee Table Book of Puppetry - That's how Andy Heath has described this website. I like it - I will take that :-))
SOFFICINI in Italy
SOFFICINI FINDUS ...sounds very romantic in Italian.
Less so in our English tongue, where it becomes : FINDUS CRISPY PANCAKES.
Little CARLETTO Chameleon has been the face of Crispy Pancakes in Italy for over twenty years.
But it wasn't always that way.
When Hensons first made puppet characters for Findus there were other animals but no Chameleons.
And they were in Famillies.
First ever shoot was in Milan, and there were Snake, Hedgehog and Octopus families. A 'Mum' a "Dad' and a 'Child' ( boy or girl ) in each.
Next few trips out to Italy were the same with other animal groups being added.
The Octopus - deemed a disater- were never seen again.
Kangaroos and Chamelions arrived. The snake family were a huge hit for a while.
But in audiences research polls, it was the Chameleons the kids loved.
So gradually the other animals vanished and the Chameleon family had it all to themselves for a year or two.
New people at the Agency, keen to make their mark, decided to drop 'the parents' and make CARLETTO the sole star.
Now there was just one face to put on the packaging.
Carletto was a hit.
And so began many years of dressing him up different ways - so many themes:
Pirate, Vampire, Postman, Bus Driver, Superhero...
Anything was possible as Carletto looked great in any costume.
It started out with a large gang of puppeteers for the family groups, and ended up being myself and NIGEL PLASKITT for years and years.
One would work the puppet, the other do the radio controlled googley eyes.
We'd swap shot by shot to rest our arms. Carletto was surprisingly heavy due to a metal arm and leg skeleton and eye mechanics.
Nigel and I had many good years travelling the World with out little green friend.
CapeTown , Havana, Prague, Budapest were special treats.
But there were many shoots in Milan , and even more in Rome
Directors came and went, doing two consecutive stints at the most. Then one from Romania came ... and stayed... for a run of four.
He was not very pleasant, and totally Machiavellian.
For the first few years John Henderson directed, he was amazing as always.
Then the Agency switched to using other directors from all over Italy and Europe.
Once his feet were 'under the table', he waited for another change of personnel at the Ad Agency, then persuaded them to use his Romanian puppeteer mates instead.
All good things come to an end. Shame though.
Compare the MEERKAT
The TV Compare the Market Averts are all animated frame by frame (Just like a Pixar movie or any other animation would be.)
But as the character exists digitally inside a computer, we can also link it up to the same Hand Control System we would normally use for animatronics.
Then puppeteer him.
As far as I know little Carletto is still going strong.
I am not involved at all with the adverts, but have been called in occasionally to do Corporate Events where Sergei is 'Live" on a screen talking to Clients and Investors.
Or making an 'in person' personal appearance.
Both presenters knew Sergei was absolutely 'Live'-
Not prerecorded dialogue : we had his voice actor with us.
But we had rehearsed with the producer before Phillip and Ruth got to set.
That kept their reactions nice and spontaneous.
One of the more fun 'live' gigs was on ITVs 'Good Morning Britain'.
We certainly made Phillip laugh, with references to his grey hair being like our fur.
Robert Tygner was with me performing the head and body movements on separate joysticks.
I had my regular task of facials and lip-sync.
All on Matt Dentons superb hand controls as per.
Also as per - no photos of us at work.
Phillip and Ruth came over to our controls during the ad-break afterwards.
They both said it was the most fun they had on set for a long while.
Happy days.
NIKE - 2014 World Cup
Ok, we've established that the Animatronic Hand Control System can control not only animatronic hand puppets, animatronic heads on body costumes but also digital puppets ( that exist in three dimensions only inside a computer.)
Rob Tygner has spearheaded the development of this process with things like the "Whats's Your News?" TV show and Sergei the Meerkat for Live presentations.
This project for NIKE was an extension of that process.
Football players that Nike sponsored were to do live online reports during the 2014 World Cup.
This tied in with them also appearing on a (conventionally) digitally animated short called "The last Game"
We actually rehearsed with digital puppets of Renaldo. Neymar Jnr and Zlatan.
Turns out Zlatan was the one where the voice impression and the digital characature really 'clicked' .
He had the best on-screen chemistry .
So the other two were relegated , and the project became "ASK ZLATAN".
It was literally a "PASSION " project, the Digital puppets ( and the animated featurette) being created at Passion Picures in London.
But we performed our livetime magic out in Portland Oregon.
It's a shame it's such a low resolution photo, but it's the only one have showing the 'Motion-Capture' rig that puppeteers wore to create Zlatans head and body movements on this job.
Our esteemed coordinator ROB TYGNER is giving it a try here. But out in Portland, Iestyn Evans and Steve Kynman alternated daily as it was very physical work.
We produced several minutes of content everyday throughout the four week World Cup tournament. Each days output would have taken a team of 'regular' digital animators several days to produce.
So we had the capacity to be bang up to date and topical with our match references. Output went to a dedicated YouTube Chanel, and picked up quite following worldwide.
Back then this was totally cutting edge of what technology could do with pixels in real time.
Now a decade later you can talk at your iPhone screen , gurn your face and have an avatar replicate all your talking and expressions.
What we could only do by puppeteering skill, can now be done by anyone on a smartphone.
This avenue of work has totally evaporated.
It was fun while it lasted though.
ARGOS. ALIENS
These guys were on UK telly for a few years. I was in the gang of puppeteers that did the first two campaigns. The second batch of Adverts we did were actually filmed in CapeTown South Africa.
Our little gang of performers were Barnaby Harrisson, Patrick Comberford, Steve Clarke and me. There is a 'making of' video of us online shooting the first adverts.
I am not putting a link here. All us four lads are on the rotund side ...
So in Lycra we do look like something Greenpeace should be out 'saving'!
The production company totally changed personnel for the third batch of adverts.
We suddenly found that some of our mates had been approached to operate the Aliens ...it's a cutthroat world. But we had huge fun while it lasted .
And it was great trip out to Cape Town. Actually my second trip there, as I had been with the Honeymonster ten years earlier. But nice to go right to the Cape again.
Joyous to see the two different coloured Oceans mingling . Fabulous !
SCISSOR SISTERS at The BRITT AWARDS
A wonderful experience. The Scissor Sisters were a total joy to work with.
They put in way more rehearsal room time with us puppeteers than they needed to.
They were wonderfully calm and patient and genuinely enjoyed the whole process.
As always, it was a fantastic gang of puppeteers.
We are very used to being in studios and in front of cameras together.
But it made a refreshing change to be doing a live Stage performance.
No monitors, just go with the flow and the choreography.
The number starts with Jake Shears and Ana Matronic bursting out of two golden eggs that our Big Pink Mamma has laid.
Any puppet is always twice as alive, twice as believable, when someone interacts with it.
Jake had huge fun performing with Mamma. And we all loved working with the whole band. They are all such joyful folk.
